Stack your blocks up, nice and high...

One thing that kind of irks me is room blocks. For those of you who don't know, a block is a set of rooms set aside for certain events/people, such as weddings, meetings, and sporting events. Summer and spring our our busiest seasons because of blocks.

It just so happens that this April, we have the immense pleasure of having not one, but two blocks set up (each a on a different weekend), both for softball. Joy. (You can read my post about what the weekend with the first block was like here.) Of course I am used to blocks and know that they will be awful, but that doesn't mean they're any easier to handle just because they're expected.

Now, one would think, that if you were playing in a sporting event and needed quite a few rooms, you would call oh, let's say, pretty darn far in advance. Most of the teams set blocks up months ago, and the team members have been calling since. Well, about a week and a half ago I had someone who called wanting something like ten rooms, all non-smoking doubles (the most common, and quickly reserved, room), and was surprised and even a bit mad I'd say, that we only had smoking suites left. I told her we could try to work with her, and she agreed to try to come to an arrangement.

She began asking questions about rates and such, and I politely told her that I have never set up a block before, had no knowledge of how to do so, and was not authorized to do so, or even to offer her a multi-room discount, but if she called back three days later, when the girl who can and does set up blocks would be back in, she could reserve as many rooms as she'd like. This angered her slightly more, to which I said something like:
"Ma'am, I understand your need to reserve these rooms, but I cannot assist you as I do not know how. Might I suggest calling a bit sooner the next time you need a block?"

She huffed, I apologized again, and went about my day shaking my head at her procrastination for something so obviously important, and wondering why anyone would wait so long if they had known they needed so many rooms for so long, but being glad I could still help, and that everyone else had taken care of it sooner.

Until today. When someone called wanting 7-10 rooms, all two bed nonsmoking, for exactly a week from now. We have four rooms left, all smoking, all with just one bed. This displeased her, and I gently reminded this woman as well that in fact, most of the teams called months ago to secure their rooms, and we just didn't have much left, but could accommodate her with what we had left. She said she'd stay out of town.